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| A new perspective suggests that early humans were like prey animals. (Image: BBC) |
Anthropologists have proposed a new hypothesis that the first human generations learned to live in groups and cooperate to avoid being hunted by carnivorous animals.
Previously, scientists believed that humans millions of years ago lived together to hunt more effectively. However, a new theory suggests that the reason humans lived in groups was to avoid being eaten.
Professor Robert Sussman, an anthropologist at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, stated at a conference that the need to avoid being killed was the most crucial factor in how humans learned to cooperate with each other.
According to him, evidence shows that early humans had teeth that were not suited for eating meat, and if they could not eat meat, why would they actively go hunting?
“The common belief is that early humans were hunters, but in reality, they were more like prey. Intelligence, cooperation, and other characteristics of humans developed from efforts to escape from predatory species.”
James Rilling, from Emory University in Atlanta, used brain imaging techniques to examine the biological mechanisms behind cooperation.
He observed the brains of individuals playing games under experimental conditions that involved choosing between cooperation and non-cooperation.
He found that cooperation yielded benefits, and humans reacted negatively when a partner refused to cooperate.
In contrast, our closest relatives, chimpanzees, do not help others, even when doing so does not cause them any harm.
